In Los Angeles, one of the places to be on Saturday nights is the cemetery. Specifically it's the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, final resting place of many movie greats, going back to Valentino.

As NPR's Ina Jaffe found out, the celebrity graveyard invites fans of classic films to watch them below and above the stars.

INA JAFFE reporting:

It's about 6:30 in the evening. The gates of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery will not open for another hour and there are already hundreds of people waiting in line on a gritty section of Santa Monica Boulevard. Tommy and Valerie Krause sit on beach chairs, a game of dominos on top of their picnic camper, something to pass the time before the screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Mr. TOMMY KRAUSE (Los Angeles resident): We got here at 5:45 and we were wondering if that was too late or too early and by our position it seems like it was too late.

Ms. VALERIE KRAUSE (Los Angeles resident): It seems like every year you have to get here earlier and earlier.

JAFFE: Inside the cemetery gates, it's so green and so peaceful you can't believe you're in Los Angeles.

Mr. JOHN WYATT (Cinespia): This is Hattie McDaniel's grave, the first African American to win an Oscar.

JAFFE: John Wyatt's organization, called Cinespia, has been showing movies here for five years. As he cruises the grounds in a golf cart, it's clear he's come to know the place by heart.

Mr. WYATT: This is Mel Blanc's grave. Mel Blanc, who did all the voices for the Looney Tunes.

JAFFE: It says That's All Folks.

Mr. WYATT: That's his epitaph.

JAFFE: Wyatt is 32 years old, fell in love with old movies in high school and really wanted to find a way to share them with younger people.

Mr. WYATT: And I found maybe if there was an environment that was less stuffy, with drinking some cocktails, having some picnic dinner, having some music, some DJs, it might be a great way to present these.

JAFFE: Showing the Hollywood classics at this cemetery doesn't seem ghoulish to Wyatt. It seems right.

Mr. WYATT: I feel that this cemetery is so connected to Hollywood's past. There's so many historical figures buried here. And I feel like people coming here to see these films and be entertained by these films becomes almost a celebration of Hollywood film. It's very lively and very much amongst the living that these events take place.

JAFFE: When you see some of the tombs, you remember why many of the people buried here were referred to as Hollywood royalty. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is interred in a white marble sarcophagus in a small pavilion. In front of it, swans and ducks glide on a reflecting pool. Behind it is a huge lawn where as many as 2,700 people eat, drink and party before the movie starts.

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